Somber vigil: Memphis Sikhs remember Wisconsin shooting victims

Nimmi Kamra (middle) joins hundreds of mourners from the Sikh community during a candlelight vigil at Memphis City Hall Friday night to honor the fallen after a fatal Sikh Temple shooting Sunday near Milwaukee.

No doubt many have kept vigil in the shadow of Memphis City Hall over the years, singing hymns that floated away on the breeze. But no one in the crowd gathered there Friday night could recall ever hearing Punjabi hymns rising from a crowd of mourners.

The hundred or so people sang in honor of those who were killed or injured at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., Sunday when alleged white supremacist Wade Michael Page opened fire and killed six people, including a police officer, wounding several others before taking his own life.

A handout was distributed to the crowd in Memphis, with an English translation, but most chose to listen in silence — many with heads bowed, some with eyes misting.

The ceremony opened with taps by bugler Tom Grant, followed by prayers and hymns in Punjabi, the native language of most Sikhs worldwide, and included condolences from Memphis Mayor A C Wharton and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell.

"At times like these, we ask ourselves, 'Why, why, why,' but my faith tells me that that discernment is not with us, but with our God," Wharton told the crowd.

"This is such a somber moment, not a time for showmanship," said Gurpal Bindra before the vigil began. An organizer of the event and one of the founding members of the Mid-South Sikh Sabha, he was reluctant to step into the limelight as the evening's host.

"We were never prepared for an event like this," said Arvinder Singh Kang, a volunteer advocate for the Sikh Coalition who helped coordinate vigils in Memphis, Jackson and Tupelo Friday evening.

For leaders in the Sikh community in Memphis and elsewhere, last Sunday's shooting brought with it not only a torrent of emotions but of phone calls and e-mails as well. Those who had never before needed to field calls from mayors or the media found themselves overwhelmed this week.

Memphis has a small but close-knit Sikh community, Kang said, estimating that there are perhaps 200 or so in the greater Memphis area.

"Although it's a very tragic event, the way Americans have come together and, the whole of America has stood alongside the Sikh community ... we have really felt it."

Amarjit Singh, a priest at the Sikh Center of the Mid-South, said that he had just finished teaching last Sunday when news of the shooting broke, and he said the mood at the traditional lunch that follows Sunday services was one of grief, confusion and even fear.

But he said strangers have stopped him on the street to offer their condolences.

"People come up to me asking me, 'Are you Sikh?' And they say they are feeling sorry about the events and that they don't feel what that man felt, they say, 'We love you.'"

Singh, along with many in attendance at Friday's vigil, agreed that people now are asking questions about Sikhism and taking notice of the small Sikh community in Memphis.

"Even though we have been victims here and there, at least now the majority of people know who the Sikhs are and what kind of community we are," Singh said.

The last line on the hymn the crowd sang Friday night illustrated Singh's point. Translated, it reads, "When this mortal life comes to an end, may I die fighting with limitless courage."